The Pace of Mission

By Nicole Longnecker

Sweat was pouring down under my sunglasses onto my pink, freckled cheeks as I adjusted my bright yellow polo shirt. Rivers more of the salty stuff was running down my back and pooling in the waistband of my 90’s chic pleated bermuda shorts. It was 112 degrees and I was standing, breathless, in the middle of a dusty dirt lot in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico bordered on either side by homes made of wooden pallets covered with cardboard boxes. My friends and I had just finished our performance of a hip hop dance to the Winans Song “It’s Time to Make A Change” and it was my turn to give my 5 minute testimony, which took a little longer as it was translated from English into Spanish. It was the summer of 1994 and this was evangelism.

We held an altar call and prayed with the kids who came forward to receive Jesus, then played soccer in the street and drank Coke from glass bottles, as the little girls stroked my blonde ponytail and giggled and chatted in a language I didn’t understand.

Years later, as we grew more savvy, we knocked on doors in our own middle class neighborhoods and handed out lightbulbs, telling those who opened to us that Jesus cared about their practical needs and handing them an invitation to come to church on Sunday.

I hung up my hip hop shoes and stored away my box of lightbulbs and gospel tracts decades ago- but Jesus still calls me into His great mission on this earth.

“God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19 MSG

I no longer see making disciples or leading a soul to Jesus as a sunny afternoon activity, the conclusion of which is an altar call and a decision. It’s a lifelong adventure- with incremental progress, and sometimes lack of visible progress- that maybe more accurately reflects the way that Jesus lived on mission with His disciples.

We need to be willing to embrace a lifestyle of evangelism that steadily gives ourselves to others over days and weeks and months and years. And we need to remember that it is not up to us whether people choose to follow Jesus. It is up to us to be faithful. To love them. To be kind and winsome and wise. To be truth tellers and careful listeners. They may receive God’s good invitation! And we will be in the front row praising God if they do. And if they don’t- or if it takes a long time-

We will keep pouring in God’s kindness. We will keep listening to the brokenhearted. We will keep reaching out for the unloved and the hungry. We will keep befriending those who are far from God and bringing them into our homes and our hearts and showing them that they are important to us and so they are important to Jesus.

And we will keep showing up at basketball games, and talking to people we haven’t met yet. We will keep visiting our neighbors and hearing their stories and taking them banana bread and raking their leaves and trying to show by the way we live with generosity and with grace that Jesus is a God of generosity and of grace.

And we will keep knitting hats or cooking meals for folks who are sick and we will keep giving out of the good gifts God has given us in whatever way we can for as many days as He gives us. Because mission is a marathon not a sprint and even if we have to walk every step because we just can’t run we will keep walking and even limping with love until that day when we see Him face to face.

This is the pace of our mission.

Call To Action

“For the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion, that one died for all, therefore all died. And He died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for the one who died for them and was raised…everything is from God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.” 2Corinithians 5:14-15, 18 CSB

“Then He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.’” Mark 16:15 CSB

“Above all, maintain constant love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others, as stewards of the varied grace of God. If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God’s words; if anyone serves, let it be from the strength God provides, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. To Him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.” I Peter 4:8-11 CSB

“We cared so much for you that we were pleased to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.” IThessalonians 2:8 CSB

Reflection Questions

1. How has God uniquely gifted you? How could you use those gifts to reach out to those who are far from Him?

2. In what ways do you try to “rush” the process of evangelism? How does it help to think of it as a marathon rather than a sprint?

3. Where has God placed you to build relationships with those who don’t know Jesus? Where do you work? Where do you Live? Where do you Learn? Where do you Play?

4. Name a few people you know who you can intentionally love and listen to. Take time to ask questions and find out more of their story the next time you see them.